Monday - Friday, 6-9 a.m.

Host Tom Temin brings you the latest news affecting the federal community each weekday morning, featuring interviews with top government executives and contractors. Listen live from 6 to 9 a.m. or download archived interviews below.

Stop us if you've heard this before. Congress, divided over policy, threatens to let funding lapse for federal agencies. That would cause furloughs for some, and working without pay for others. The last time it happened, federal employees had grounds for a lawsuit over violations of labor law. Could it happen again for Homeland Security employees? As part of this week's Legal Loop, Heidi Burakiewicz, a partner at the law firm Mehri & Skalet, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with some answers.

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com readers more information about the stories heard on the radio. In today's news, a government watchdog files a complaint over a congressman's travel spending, the Transportation Security Administration says more than 90 percent of its employees would still report to work in the event of a shutdown and Senate vote on funding the Homeland Security Department could come as early
as today.

In its latest legislative proposal on cybersecurity, the White House argues for liability protections for companies who agree to share cyber threat information with the government and with each other. But the Department of Homeland Security admits that solving those legal questions won't mean companies will automatically open their doors to the data the government wants. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu has the details.

The National Institutes of Health has big plans for its Bethesda Campus 500 pages of plans, to be specific. The plan includes everything from replacing buildings to clearing traffic congestion to changing landscaping.

The Veterans Affairs Department is attacking its appeals backlog much in the same way it took on its disability claims backlog. VA is using a combination of technology and old-fashioned process improvements to deal with an appeals backlog that has grown by 15 percent over the last two years. Federal News Radio's executive editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more details on VA's plans to decrease the appeals backlog.

Federal employees are using their government-issued credit cards to buy gas for themselves, and sometimes friends and family. A lot of it in fact. A review of federal audits and court records by the NEWS4 I-Team found about 260 such cases. Scott MacFarlane is an Investigative Reporter with the NEWS4 I-Team. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on what they found.

The National Institutes of Health's massive Bethesda campus is going to undergo quite the facelift over the next couple of decades. NIH has put together a 20-year, 500-page plan for the campus that will include 17 new buildings. Ricardo Herring, the director of the Division of Facilities Planning at NIH, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on what NIH is planning.

A good reputation might be a government contractor's most valuable asset. That makes maintaining integrity one of the most important activities. So says Tim Sullivan, a partner at the law firm Thompson Coburn, and author of the blog, "A Government Contractor's 10 Commandments." On the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, he tackled the eighth commandment: Thou shall maintain thy integrity. It might seem like common sense, but it's impossible to overstate its importance.

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com readers more information about the stories heard on the radio. In today's news,

Still no funding resolution for the Homeland Security Department. It's set to run out Friday. It will be the second time in less than two years. Rafael Borras was the acting deputy secretary of DHS during the October 2013 shutdown. He's now a senior advisor at AT Kearney. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he shared his memory of that time with Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp.

The Office of Personnel Management needs to do more to ensure meaningful distinctions are being made when it comes to performance ratings and awards for members of the Senior Executive Service. That's according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more details from the report.

The Pentagon's been warning for years that the decade-long budget caps Congress set in place four years ago won't work. At least if DoD hopes to execute the defense strategy on the books right now. With sequestration set to return this year, officials say they'll try to make things a bit less abstract…and publish a report that details exactly what would happen to individual bases and weapons systems with a 30 billion dollar cut. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss DoD's sequestration messaging strategy as part of this week's edition of Inside the Reporter's Notebook.

The reverse auction firm FedBid is back in the federal market. The Air Force has lifted the suspension - and stopped the debarment process it initiated against the company. Federal News Radio's executive editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain why and how FedBid is back in business with the government.

The expiration date for Homeland Security's continuing resolution is fast approaching. The deadline is Friday. And that means Congress has just four days to reach an agreement funding the department for the rest of the year, or furlough roughly 30,000 employees. What should DHS managers be doing to prepare for this possibility? John Palguta, the vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to offer some answers.

After four years leading the government efforts come up with an alternative to the password, Jeremy Grant is leaving government. He's a Senior Executive Advisor for Identity Management at the National Insitute of Standards and Technology. In an email to his colleagues, he says he's unsure where he'll go next, but plans to leave NIST in April. He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin in studio to reflect on progress in identity management and some of the success stories.

Contractors doing any government work overseas face a big new rule that goes into effect this coming Monday. It's aimed at preventing contractors from engaging in human trafficking. It's a rule with teeth and it covers a lot of ground. Peter Eyre, a partner at the law firm Crowell and Moring's Government Contracts Group, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on the rule and its implications.

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com readers more information about the stories heard on the radio. In today's news, the Veterans Affairs Secretary apologizes for misstating his military record, a Yahoo technology executive trades barbs with the National Security Agency director and Mitch McConnell tries a new tactic to avoid a lapse in funding for the Homeland Security Department.

President Barack Obama's budget request included a small, $5 million item earmarked for a next-generation fighter. And while no one knows exactly what it'll be, it's meant to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler by 2030. Jerry Hendrix, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on what exactly the new fighter will be capable of — and why it's needed.

The Small Business Administration has a problem with its Historically Underutilized Business Zones designation. According to a new GAO report, SBA has no way to inform businesses when they might no longer qualify as a HUBZone. Or when the zone they operate in might not longer be considered a HUBZone. For more on the report, and what SBA can do to improve, Bill Shear, director of Financial Markets and Community Investment Issues at the GAO, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive.